Wednesday, 20 February 2013

MARSHALL ACQUIRES SILVER STREET AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESSESMarshall, the privately owned dealer Group, has announced that it has completed its acquisition of the Audi, Volkswagen (Passenger Cars and Commercial Vehicles) and Škoda businesses in Devon and Somerset from Silver Street Automotive. The deal includes 10 businesses: three Audi businesses (Exeter, Plymouth and Taunton); three Volkswagen cars businesses (Barnstaple, Bridgwater, Taunton); two Volkswagen commercial vehicles businesses (Barnstaple, Bridgwater); Škoda in Barnstaple and the Trade Parts Specialist business in Exeter. The acquisition takes the total number of franchised dealerships in the Marshall portfolio to 70. Under the terms of the agreement, all 324 colleagues at these sites have transferred to Marshall, taking the headcount at Marshall to around 2,300. The combined group’s turnover for 2012 is £927m with Silver Street accounting for £115m.Commenting on the acquisition, Daksh Gupta, Chief Executive at Marshall said: “We are absolutely delighted to be partnering with Audi and also to be joining the Škoda network. We are also pleased to be further strengthening our relationship with Volkswagen Passenger Cars and Commercial Vehicles especially having joined their respective networks just last year.”Daksh Gupta added: “This is a significant acquisition for Marshall which sees us continuing our strategy to become a national dealer group. Since early 2009, we have added substantial scalable businesses in the Midlands, the North East, the North West and now the South West, all the time reducing our reliance on our historic heartland in East Anglia.”“Since 2009, our underlying turnover has grown from £250m to a run rate that is rapidly approaching a billion. 70% of our portfolio is new and we have welcomed around 1,500 new colleagues to Marshall. All of our acquisitions have been funded by our own cash flows and have involved no debt. Our plan is to continue to grow the business through acquisition, but a key focus for us now is optimising the group’s performance.""This performance optimisation strategy is to benefit all our key stakeholders; our customers, people, brand partners and shareholders.”Simon Thomas, Chief Executive of Volkswagen Group UK commented “This is an important acquisition event for Marshall and the Volkswagen Group. It will strengthen our partnership by increasing representation on our Volkswagen car and commercial vehicle brands whilst also introducing Marshall as a new investor to our Škoda and Audi franchises.” The new Audi businesses will be overseen by David Waghorn, an established Marshall Franchise Director with significant prestige brand experience. The Volkswagen businesses and the Škoda business will be run by Chris Norris, the Marshall Brand Director for Volkswagen who joined the family‐owned group in 2012 following the Company’s acquisition of their first Volkswagen businesses. Daksh Gupta concluded: “I very much look forward to welcoming our new colleagues to Marshall and to introducing them to our Company, our culture and our values.”

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About the Marshall Motor Group

Marshall Motor Group was founded over 100 years ago in Cambridge and now has 67
dealership businesses across the country from Cumbria to Hertfordshire. Marshall
remains family-owned and privately-funded and has over 2,000 colleagues. With a
current annual turnover of more than £700m, Marshall is a Top 10 Dealer Group in the
UK and the second largest privately owned.
For more information please visit http://www.marshallweb.co.uk